Going to climb the mountain with the 2015 TBR Challenge.

I tried this challenge in 2013, and I failed. I took a break, and I tried others in 2014. My book addiction remains strong, and my shelves have a lot of books that are waiting to be read. In 2013, I read 9 books and reviewed 4 out of the 9. I am hoping I can do better this year and at least make it to the lowest level. What did me in back then was my way of serendipity when it comes to reading. However, much of what I have now in the TBR shelves in my work station at home are graphic novels and mangas. Since I am doing a graphic novels challenge this year, I hope I can do some crossing to help get me up the mountain. Yet I am also doing a library-related reading challenge this year, so hopefully I can maintain enough balance to borrow books and read my own as well.

So, here we go once more:

The 2015 Mount TBR Challenge.

Some of the basics (you can click the link above for full details as well as to sign up if so moved):

• "Challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2015."
• "Books must be owned by you prior to January 1, 2015. No ARCs (none), no library books." (What this means for me is that I cannot use stuff from Netgalley or Edelweiss, nor library books. Thus I have to get stuff from my shelves).
• "You may count 'Did Not Finish' books provided they meet your own standard for such things, you do not plan to ever finish it, and you move it off your mountain [give it away, sell it, etc OR remove it from your e-resources]. For example, my personal rule (unless it's a very short book) is to give a book at least 100 pages. If I decide I just can't finish it and won't ever, then off the mountain it goes and I count it as a victory--the stack is smaller!" (This may or not help me. I rarely abandon books. What I may do is skim, especially for nonfiction. Overall, if I got to the end of a book, even if I had to drag myself there or skip, hop, and jump to do it, I count the book as read. For books that were less than good, to put it mildy, they often do get donated or sold off, so in essence, they are removed from the mountain. We'll see how this goes this year). 

To keep it safe, I am committing to the lowest level:

Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s

As I noted, I got close last time, so I think this can be done. It amounts to one book a month. Naturally, if I manage to read and review more, I will upgrade the challenge. As I usually do, I will be adding books to the list as I read them, and I will add the links to reviews as I post them on the blog. 

List of books I read for this challenge:

1.  Andrew Bohrer, The Best Shots You've Never Tried. 
2. Juzo Tokoro, Spawn: Shadows of Spawn, Volume 2. 
3. Juzo Tokoro, Spawn: Shadows of Spawn, Volume 3.  
4. Bob Budiansky, et.al., The Transformers Classics, Volume 4. 
5. John Arcudi, The Mask.
6. Various authors, Predator Omnibus, Volume 1. 
7. Robert Kirkman, Battle Pope, Volume 1: Genesis. 
8. Robert Kirkman, Battle Pope, Volume 2: Mayhem. 
9. Jim Davis, Garfield Tips the Scales. 
10. Zeb Wells, Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One. 
11. Various authors, Star Trek: Alien Spotlight, Volume 1. 
12. Elaine Lee, Vamps.  

Update note (12/31/15): With the Vamps volume, I managed to complete the basic commitment to this reading challenge.  Though I would have thought this would be an easy challenge for me since I have a lot of books on my TBR shelf, the reality is I have to remind myself to pick up something from my shelf once in a while. I tend to get caught up reading my NetGalley stuff, followed by stuff I read from the library, and then forget I am doing this as well. I tend to read as mood strikes me, and I often pick out books as I see them. Naturally, I read the NetGalley and library stuff first since they have time limits. And while I will keep reading from those sources, I will try to work a bit more on reading from my TBR shelf in the coming year.

The challenge was a nice way to keep me accountable and get me to read a few things from my shelves. Except for one book, they were all comics and graphic novels, which is fine by me. I do have a lot of those books on my TBR shelves. I did not do much in terms of checking in throughout the year for the challenge; I checked in early on, then sort of let it hang a while, and then got a second wind at the end of the year. I finished the last book, Vamps, last week, and I got the review up this week, so I cut it close. I will definitely do this challenge again next year as it is one that helps me read stuff I already got. I hope I can manage it better so I am not cutting it close at the end of the year. Thus, for 2015, this challenge was completed successfully.